Sewage outbursts affect coastal environments as seawater is enriched with nutrients, organic matter and microbes, thus can potentially impair seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination. In this study, we evaluated how municipal sewage outbursts affect SWRO desalination in a pilot-scale system. To this end, feedwater characteristics (i.e., coastal water), the removal efficiency of organic foulants by a dual-media gravity filter, and cartridge micro-filtration were determined daily for 12 days. Permeate water flux was maintained constant during the study, while trans-membrane pressure (TMP) was automatically adjusted and continuously monitored. The results indicate that sewage outbursts caused an immediate (∼1 d) buildup of phyto/bacterioplankton biomass (up to 10-fold), and enhanced activity (maximal 30-fold) followed by an increase in transparent exopolymer particle (TEP) concentrations. After sewage addition, algal biomass was significantly removed by the pretreatment system (72–90%), while a considerable fraction of the bacterial biomass (42–65%) and TEP (53–65%) passed these procedures. The result was a negative impact on the desalination performance reflected by a significant increase (> 10%) in RO-TMP 7.5 d after the sewage addition. Our results indicate on a direct link between sewage outbursts, pretreatment efficiency, and SWRO desalination. Nevertheless, these findings can lead to new avenues for the development of science-based operational protocols to minimize the deleterious effects of abrupt sewage outbursts on SWRO desalination.

污水爆发会影响沿海环境，因为海水富含营养物质、有机物和微生物，因此可能会损害海水反渗透 (SWRO) 脱盐。在这项研究中，我们在一个试点规模的系统中评估了城市污水突增如何影响 SWRO 海水淡化。为此，给水特性（即, 沿海水)、双介质重力过滤器和滤芯微滤对有机污染物的去除效率每天测定 12 天。在研究过程中，渗透水通量保持恒定，而跨膜压力 (TMP) 会自动调节并持续监测。结果表明，污水爆发导致立即（~1 d）植物/浮游细菌生物量的积累（高达 10 倍）和活性增强（最大 30 倍），随后透明外聚体颗粒 (TEP) 浓度增加。添加污水后，藻类生物量被预处理系统显着去除（72-90%），而相当一部分细菌生物量（42-65%）和 TEP（53-65%）通过了这些程序。结果是对海水淡化性能产生负面影响，反映在加入污水后 RO-TMP 7.5 天显着增加（> 10%）。我们的结果表明污水突涌、预处理效率和 SWRO 脱盐之间存在直接联系。尽管如此，这些发现可以为开发基于科学的操作协议提供新的途径，以最大限度地减少突然的污水爆发对 SWRO 海水淡化的有害影响。